The present invention relates to hand-held computing devices. In particular, the present invention relates to user interfaces on hand-held computing devices.
In early models of hand-held devices, an entry in a list could be highlighted by tapping on it once and its “card” or full window could be opened by tapping on the entry twice. After single tapping on the entry, an action, such as delete, cut, or copy, could be invoked on the entry by making a selection from a menu located at the top of the screen.
Since users often want to access the full card of an entry when they are working with the entry and double-tapping can be a difficult operation to perform especially when the user is moving, some newer models of hand-held devices display the entry's “card” or full window when the user single taps the entry. Because of this, when a user wants to perform an action on an entry, such as Delete, the entire card must be opened before the command can be selected from a menu. For often-repeated actions such as deleting mail entries, this is cumbersome.
In addition, because the menus in the prior art are opened using a separate tap of the stylus, it is impossible to invoke menu commands on the hand-held device unless both of the user's hands are engaged in operating the device. If one of the user's hands is otherwise engaged, for example holding a briefcase, the user cannot invoke menu commands for a displayed object.